Alison Flood’s best crime and thrillers of 2024
This year’s pulse-quickening picks include the tense finale of Attica Locke’s Highway 59 series, Mo Hayder’s frightening last work and a fresh murder mystery from Richard Osman
The best crime and thrillers of 2024
A choice of whodunnits, a return for le Carré’s Smiley, and dark, disturbing encounters in the woods
Leave the Girls Behind by Jacqueline Bublitz review – tale of murdered girls is gripping but flawed
In her second novel the crime author cannily uses the trappings of her genre to explore the ways society and the justice system fail women
Crime and thrillers of the month – review
A French assassin whose memory is failing; murders in a Swedish town that no one can leave; and some light crime-solving during an Australian Christmas
Crime and thrillers of the month – review
Agatha Christie meets Saw in rural Essex, dark secrets of the wellbeing industry uncovered and a gripping tale of revenge on the privileged
The Drowned by John Banville review – death and drizzle in 50s Ireland
Tight-lipped humour thrums through the latest in the Booker winner’s Strafford and Quirke crime series, which centres on a university professor and his missing wife
Foul play at the fish farm: ‘Nordic blue’, the hit new genre mixing noir and knitting
Satu Rämö has caused a publishing sensation across Europe – thanks to her novels about Hildur, a mindful cop who solves murders with her needle-clacking sidekick, then soothes her trauma with exercise. We meet the author for rhubarb cordials at her Iceland cottage
Attica Locke on the US election: ‘It’s white Americans that have to fix this’
The Highway 59 author discusses the influence of politics on her crime novels, how Beyoncé caused a backlash, and why Trump’s re-election is not as likely as it seems
Crime and thrillers of the month – review
A black girl goes missing in Attica Locke’s latest, brutal murder is all the rage across the US – and Londoners aren’t welcome in rural Wales
The Mystery of Little Angel Theatre review – Robin Stevens brings juicy intrigue in dynamic whodunnit
As you would expect from the queen of kids’ crime fiction, there’s a grisly murder to solve and a lineup of dubious suspects that leaves the audience abuzz with theories
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman; Guide Me Home by Attica Locke; Five By Five by Claire Wilson; The Night of Baba Yaga by Akira Otani; I Died at Fallow Hall by Bonnie Burke-Patel
‘I wanted to write a suburban Reacher’: Richard Osman talks to Lee Child about class, success and the secret to great crime writing
The two hugely successful authors who both started in TV discuss writing as a second career, natural justice – and what they really think of literary fiction
My passionate love affair with Scotland’s largest island
On the surface, little appears to have changed in the 30 years that bestselling author Peter May has been visiting the Isle of Lewis. But tourism has had a big impact – from Sunday opening hours to a deep water port for cruise ships
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman review – his new crime-fighting team is another winner
A private security officer and the famous novelist in her charge are pursued around the world by a killer in the delightful first book in Osman’s new series
Crime and thrillers of the month – review
Bella Mackie assembles a gloriously repugnant dysfunctional family, a murderous nurse hides in a library, and a female vigilante hunts down sexual predators in a skilful debut